From the Nov. 17 issue of Q-Notes, your premier source of Carolinas’ LGBT news & views.
Oral Sodomy & Tennis
Editor’s Note: Matt Comer
Athletes. Alcohol. Oral sodomy. Yeah, I don’t think that mixes too well, either. It certainly hasn’t for one student at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
Dejon Bivens, a 19-year-old member of the N.C. State tennis team, was arrested on Oct. 27 and charged with a “crime against nature.” How, you ask, could this happen? The “Crimes Against Nature” (CAN) law is void after the Supreme Court’s Lawrence v. Texas decision, right?
Wrong. Many of you might remember our Oct. 6 article on the North Carolina CAN law. It relayed the experience of a Florida priest arrested and charged in North Carolina with the same violation Bivens now faces. For the Florida priest, however, the actions he intended to engage in were completely consensual and would have been private — a type of CAN enforcement the Supreme Court struck down in its landmark decision.
Bivens, however, faces an entirely different “sodomy” situation, one in which consent was allegedly never given. In the early morning hours of Oct. 27, Bivens and other members of the N.C. State tennis team were partying like all other average college students around the country. No surprise there.
Bivens’ alleged victim told Raleigh police that he went to his room to sleep and found Bivens passed out in his closet. Later, the victim said he awoke to find Bivens performing oral sex on him.
Granted, I’m amused by the fact that Bivens had to “come out of the closet” in order to give his friend and teammate the surprise nighttime favor, but this really is no laughing matter. There are at least two concerns that immediately come to my mind.
Be sure to check out this issue’s headlines.
Welcome to InterstateQ.com, the commentary and opinion blog of civic journalist and progressive, LGBT activist Matt Comer. Hailing from Winston-Salem, N.C., Matt, 26, now lives in Charlotte, where he works as editor of 
